Description
Recorded and self-released by The Shadow Ring”s own Dry Leaf Discs in 1993, City Lights is the debut record of the then duo Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris-an assured arrival statement teeming with stripling angst and ambition. On a recently-acquired secondhand guitar, Lambkin plays repetitive, brooding licks that form the record”s backbone, weaving in and out of sync with Harris”s free-form percussion and the pair”s sing-song poetry. Tracks range from unraveling nursery-rhyme ditties to extended jams awash with Casiotone and toy piano noodling. The duo”s musical hobby-horses work themselves in: the influence of Mark E. Smith”s breathless deadpan, the headless outer-edges of ESP-Disk”s back catalog, the eerie atmospherics of Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa, and the deconstructed rock tunes of the Dunedin scene are all detectable, although there is a sui generis quality to the Shadow Ring”s artless temerity. “”I”ve got to see and taste those city lights,”” intones Lambkin on the album”s title track-indeed, this is a record of naked drive and pent-up desperation, and a shimmering glimpse of what”s to come.
- 1 Double Standard
- 2 City Lights
- 3 Oooh Ahh
- 4 Cape of Seaweed
- 5 Lyin” Eyes
- 6 Cold Coffee
- 7 Here Come the Candles
- 8 Faithful Calls
- 9 White Eyes
- 10 The Visitor
- 11 Snowbirds of Alkatraz
